So, lately, I've been in a mood to (finally!) finish MYST IV and V which, for various reasons, I have never got around to finish. And I thought, while I was at it, I could start the whole story over and re-play the other games first, for the fun of it.

So I installed realMYST (that I have on original CD), all eager to play! But, sadly, the screen went black, as though the game was launching, but then I was brought back to the desktop. I tried again a few times, no go. I tried starting the game in various ways (through the autorun, from the icon on the desktop, from the file folder, linked it to Steam, etc.), no go.

I searched a bit online and found a method for a clean boot install on the Ubisoft forums. Followed the steps and yay! It worked! Played a bit, but as it was late, I closed the game and went to bed. The next day, wanting to continue the adventure, I tried launching the game... but it wouldn't start. Same thing happened as before -- black screen then back to desktop.

I had seen a link to a patch with the clean boot install directions, so I tried installing that. Yay! The game was working again! Wanting to fully play the game instead of skipping straight to the ending, I explored the worlds and such and as time flies fast when you're having fun, it was getting late so I closed the game.

Last night, I wanted to play again but, once again, the game will not launch. I tried removing the CD from the driver then putting it back in, wait a few seconds before launching. But no go. Rebooted my computer, closed more running applications. Tried various compatibility modes. No go.

I know it works on my computer, since I'm now more than halfway through the game! But something seems to be preventing it from launching.

I also tried to install it on my laptop (under Windows 8.1) and I had the same problem (black screen as though launching then back to desktop).